Malnutrition ‘a National Shame’ in India [PHOTOS]

Four-month-old Vishakha, who weighs 2.3 kg (5 lbs) and suffers from severe malnutrition, rests on a bed next to her mother at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh February 1, 2012. Photo: Reuters

Sahariya tribe children attend class at a school at Kasbathana village in Baran district in the northwestern state of Rajasthan February 1, 2012. Photo: Reuters

A health worker takes a picture of severely malnourished two-year-old girl Rajni, on her admission at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh February 1, 2012. Photo: Reuters

Sahariya tribe women hold their children suffering from malnutrition at Kasbathana village in Baran district in the northwestern state of Rajasthan February 1, 2012. Photo: Reuters

Severely malnourished two-year-old girl Rajni waits with her mother at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh February 1, 2012. Photo: Reuters

Four-month-old Vishakha, who weighs 2.3 kg (5 lbs) and suffers from severe malnutrition, is carried at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh February 1, 2012. Photo: Reuters

Four-month-old Vishakha, who weighs 2.3 kg (5 lbs) and suffers from severe malnutrition, rests on a bed at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh February 1, 2012 Photo: Reuters

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Rajini, a two-year-old girl from Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh state, India, casts a dark shadow over a rising India, where millions of people have nothing or very less to eat.

The children in central India are thin, listless and sick because of malnutrition and if they survive, then they will grow up shorter and weaker.

India's economy has doubled between 1990 and 2005 and has become Asia's third largest economy. But despite that, India has failed to decrease its high prevalence of child malnutrition.

A government-supported survey, which was released last month, said that around 42 percent of children in India, aged five or below, are underweight. This is almost double the percentage of that in sub-Saharan Africa.

The statistic, which means 3,000 children dying daily due to illnesses related to poor diets, forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to admit last month that malnutrition was a national shame and was putting the health of the nation in jeopardy, Reuters reported.